Cleanliness and hygiene standards at Nottingham's hospitals have increased significantly since the NHS took a major cleaning contract back from a private company, councillors heard.

An inspection of cleanliness at Nottingham University Hospitals (NUH) NHS Trust reveals that standards have jumped from the lowest rating to the highest in the nearly eight months since a contract with company Carillion was scrapped.

Members of Nottingham City Council's health scrutiny committee were briefed today (Thursday, December 14) on the trust’s efforts since taking the contract back in-house on April 1.

Read More

Andrew Chatten, director of estates and facilities at NUH, told the committee the trust had acted to resolve an "unacceptable" situation after after an external cleanliness audit found Carillion seriously lacking at both the Queen's Medical Centre and Nottingham City Hospital.

Carillion, which was issued the £200m contract to run all cleaning services across the trust in 2014, was given a rating of 'red' by regulator NHS Improvement in October last year after serious concerns were raised about hygiene standards at both hospitals.

"That was a very significant event for us," said Mr Chatten.

"We were under a very high level of scrutiny to put this right.

Read More

"There is evidence from both patient and visitor feedback and internal and external audits that cleanliness standards have improved but there remains work to do to achieve overall a consistently excellent service.”

The reversal of the decision meant that more than 1,000 staff were taken back into the NHS.

NUH carried out a number of exercises and special sessions between cleaning staff, management and clinical professionals at the trust to establish better practices for the future.

Daljit Athwal, deputy director of nursing, told the committee that the collaborative exercises carried out between staff members had been key to trust’s success in improving services, and had gained NUH “national recognition” with other hospitals now coming to learn about the practices that came out of it.